The present invention relates to an apparatus for removing printing material on a recording member recorded by an electro-photographic system.
Conventionally, there has been proposed, from the viewpoint of paper recycling, an apparatus for removing printing material on a recording member recorded by an electro-photographic system. In the apparatus, a heat-melting releasing member is brought into contact with the recording member and heated. Then the releasing member is cooled and separated from the recording member, thereby the printing material on the recording member is released and transferred onto the releasing member.
For example, FIG. 16 of Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 1-297294 (1989) discloses an apparatus arranged such that a plane part of the belt forming releasing member 201 is brought into pressure contact with a recording member 202, and the recording member 202 is moved in curved state around the roller 203 to make separation. In such apparatus, there is a drawback that the recording member 202 is not satisfactorily separated from the releasing member 201 when the timing for curving the recording member 202 disagrees.
In Japanese Laid-open Patent Publications No. 4-94958 (1992) and No. 4-116000 (1992), there is disclosed an apparatus as shown in FIG. 17. In the apparatus, a recording member is passed between a releasing member roller 204 and a heating roller 205 which are disposed opposite to each other to remove printing material 202a from the recording member 202. In such apparatus, because the recording member 202 is separated from the releasing member roller 204 without being sufficiently cooled, there are problems that the printing material 202a remains on the recording member 202 or the resin layer of the releasing member roller 204 is transferred to the recording member 202.
Furthermore, in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publications No. 7-84489 (1995) and No. 7-84490 (1995), there is disclosed an apparatus as shown in FIG. 18. In the apparatus, a recording member 202 is passed between a small diameter releasing roller 206 and a backup roller 207 which are disposed opposite to each other. Then, as shown in two dots chain lines the recording member 202 which is; apt to be discharged in a state of adhering to the releasing roller 206 is separated from the releasing roller 206 due to its own resilience. In the apparatus, the separation performance of the recording member 202 from the releasing roller 206 depends on the resilience of the recording member 202. Therefore, there is an apprehension that the recording member 202 cannot be removed from the releasing roller 206 depending on the kind of the recording member 202.
When the printing material 202a is removed by the conventional apparatuses as described above, depression and protrusion are created as shown in FIGS. 19A and 19b between part where the printing material 202a is fixed and part where it is not fixed. The depression and protrusion make image traces, causing a possibility that the image would be read out and secret information would be leaked when the recording member 202 is a secret document.
In addition, in the case that image is formed on both surfaces of the recording member 202, while treating one surface of the recording member 202, the printing material on the other non-treated surface adheres to the rollers 203, 205 and 207 and conveying belts (unshown) because of the heating treatment of the recording member 202. As a result, the surface of the next recording material to be subsequently treated is soiled with the printing material adhered to the roller 203 and so on.